North Dakota Ranks Near the Top in the Nation for Women’s Equality

Despite the progress made since the passing of the 19th amendment, you've probably heard "gender gap" or "gender equality" said more frequently as of late, especially in the 21st century.

In the past year, the U.S. has dropped to 45th out of 144 countries in terms of where they rank in gender equality. Given the ranking, while it still is a problem throughout the country, that statistic was broken down even further to rank each state throughout the U.S. It turns out that North Dakota comes in at 7th best in the country for women's equality, according to a recent study done by our friends at WalletHub.

In several categories used as determining factors in the study, North Dakota scored in the top five, including first nationwide in best unemployment gap between men and women, first in minimum-wage workers gap, first in educational attainment gap (amongst Bachelor Degree or higher level holders), and fourth executive positions gap. North Dakota also came in 11th political representation gap and 21st in entrepreneurship rate gap. One category that North Dakota did not score well in was income gap, coming in 49th.

States finishing ahead of North Dakota from one through six respectively were Hawaii, Nevada, Illinois, Minnesota, Washington, and Maine. The states finishing in the bottom five (46 through 50) are Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Utah. To see where all states ranked in women's equality, check out the map below.